"First Citrus Bank in wealthy, predominantly white South Tampa called the police this morning on a young Black man for being "suspicious" because he arrived at the bank (where his check for youth mentoring work was drawn from) before the bank arrived and waited outside for
it to open.
Bank employees were so terrified that this man was outside of their bank that they told him the door was broken, thus he went through the drive through to
cash his check.
In the meantime, they called TPD to report a 'suspicious person' outside the bank (we need to procure a copy of this 911 call) and within minutes TPD showed up and confronted the man. At this point the teller had taken his ID and the check.
Two cops approached the man who was waiting for his check to be cashed and accused him of being suspicious. The teller completed the transaction and dismissed the man who was now in a dangerous situation with two cops demanding his ID.
While the teller said dismissively, "Oh it's ok, Thanks. Bye," after realizing that their profiling this man was nothing more than an act of racism. It's not that simple. Racial profiling should be confronted and called out by the community. I REGULARLY wait at my bank for the doors to open. First Citrus Bank personnel were rude and dismissive and their incredulous responses to being confronted about this outrageous act that could have ended in a headline about yet another person of Color being gunned down during a "routine stop" by cops. And "he was suspicious" would have been the defense used to validate it."
Dezeray Lyn
PLEASE CALL FIRST CITRUS BANK:
4240 Henderson Blvd. Tampa, FL 33629
813-287-0992
